Rebuilding the heroes throne
by Rayiara
Summary: The slime villain's attack goes entirely differently, awakening his quirk but is he worthy to stand on equal footing with legendary heroes.
1. Chapter 1

The day started like any other day for Izuku Midoriya, he watched some villain get defeated by a new up and coming hero on his way to school, spent his school day trying to blend into the background and pretend he doesn't exist and when that failed he would stutter and focus on his school work, nothing really out of the ordinary had happened.

It would not stay the same for long. His path home from school usually is quite safe, unless you consider the shortcut, he takes under the bridge every day but saving five minutes walking around was worth the risk, right?

He was wrong as it happened, dead wrong for today as he zipped through the underpass there was a sickening squelching noise as some sort of green goop pulled itself from the sewer, the next few seconds were quite the sight to see as a face seemed to ooze into being and staring menacingly at him and quite suddenly Izuku found his feet refusing to move, it was at this point he realised he was terrified of what could only be a villain standing in front of him.

The villain's grin could almost reach from one side of his face to the other, the perfect place to hide just happened to appear right in front of him how lucky. His tentacle like appendages shot out faster than Izuku could resist and he closed his eyes in fear of what was to come.

He waited for what felt like forever and yet no blow hit. So, with trembling curiosity he edged open one eye and what he saw shocked him to his core. The villain had frozen in place, his arm almost able to touch Izuku's face.

Izuku jumped back with a scream and tried to gather himself. After a few breaths his eyes took on a sharper focused look and began muttering to himself under his breath.

"He stopped which means a hero must have done this somehow." He turned and tried to leave the tunnel, even if it was back the way he came any direction is better than here but as his foot was about to be bathed in the sunlight it hit air, solid air. It was at this point he noticed it was not just the villain that froze he could see the birds out side frozen mid wing beat, a dog with its jaw open rather comically trying to grasp at a Frisbee and then it happened. A sudden sharp pain, like molten metal had seeped into every cell of his right hand at once.

Panicking now the suddenly injured boy looked down at his hand but there was no sign of the pain he was feeling but despite seeing nothing there it still pulsed in agony every second. But even when panicking Izuku prides himself on his observation and he was sure he suddenly heard the dull thud of metal meeting stone behind him.

Spinning around on his foot he turned, his thoughts focused entirely on escaping the situation. It was a surprise to find a woman walking towards him her blonde hair almost seeming like it was illuminating the dark tunnel between them, her dress a dark blue with white accents to it but the strangest part to Izuku was the metal layered into it, it was clearly designed to be worn as armour and the sound of her walking implied metal boots under the dress. The outfit didn't match a single pro hero he knew of, Vigilante? Another villain out to settle a score?

"Child, there is no more time to waste." She spoke as though she knew him, her tone soft and caring like a mother chastising their child for asking for too many sweets. "Time has not stopped, simply slowed down dramatically." As the woman spoke her gauntlet pointed at where the sludge villain had been frozen, and it was true, Izuku could notice he had moved very slightly since he had backed away, not enough to be a concern but it did imply urgency to the young boy.

"With our time running out we must be quick. Explanations can come later. Your ideals and drive are impressive, tell me now. Do you vow to be a chivalrous hero, I have seen the current 'heroes' the term meant far more long ago, The heroes of today are a shell of the word. Will you vow to uphold what the title is intended to mean, every part of it." This time her tone had an edge of steel to it, from urgency and seriousness, it was clear to him that if he answered wrong, she might do more damage to him than the sludge villain.

So, he nodded without hesitation, Afterall that is what he always dreamed of doing, to be a hero and save everyone he could. "You shouldn't have to ask that. I have and always will want to be the ideal hero, one who saves everyone in front of them with a smile on their face!" He may have screamed that last part, years of holding back your dreams can make you a bit unstable when expressing them finally.

Her expression instantly softened and he could have sworn he saw an almost nostalgic look flash across her face for a brief moment before she steeled herself into a calm state. "Then we best be quick, this will drain my energy, but it is our only option. Child, I request permission to face this enemy in your stead, I shall be your sword this one time." She held her gauntlet out towards him, clearly intending for him to grasp it with his.

He really had no idea what she was asking or why even ask, it sounded like she was asking him for permission to save him? What sort of odd hero does that? "Of course, though I would like to know the name of the hero saving me." He reached out with his right hand and grasped hers.

As soon as his hand touched hers three things happened at once.

One: Izuku found his awareness shift, it was like he was hovering over his own shoulder.

Two: The world started moving again with a thunderous noise, like water filling in a sudden hole.

Three: The Sludge villain's arms snapped around to grab the boy who to his eyes teleported further down the tunnel.

Izuku's body moved without his commands ducking under multiple incoming attacks, and effortlessly closing the gap between them as he wordlessly shouted at his own body to run away. One of the attacks almost managed to land if it wasn't for his body suddenly swinging a golden sword and severing the slime from the main body before closing in and doing the same to the other arm.

With the villain disarmed his body moved with far more grace than he thought should be possible it pivoted from one foot to the other to maintain striking distance on the stunned foe, golden blade arcing across to take the legs out from under the slime villain.

Caught completely by the sudden assault the slime villain had no counter, all he experienced was the feeling of himself being sliced apart faster than he could blink.

These events can't have taken more than a minute but felt like hours to Izuku.

And at that moment, with Izuku standing over a disarmed villain with golden sword now dissolving into light and floating away that another figure climbed out of the sewer grate and Izuku had no trouble recognising him, it was All might.

The pro hero stood impressively over them "You can leave this to me now kid, I am here." His beaming smile and perhaps his catchphrase were enough to make Izuku feel safe and just like that his perspective returned to first person, he had control of his body again, subtly testing his fingers behind his back to make sure.

"Why don't you run along home, kid. I'll take this guy into the police, you did well to defend yourself but don't make a habit of it, using your quirk in public is illegal after all!" he made a shooing motion with his hands, clearly telling Izuku to leave him to his work of scooping the completely defeated villain off the floor and into two bottles.

"But I don't ha-"And his shoulders slumped, it didn't matter to explain that, he shouldn't bother All Might anyway. As he started walking out into the sunshine, he froze for a second as a voice spoke what felt like from everywhere around him at once.

"Artoria, my true name is Artoria, we'll talk more later that took more energy than I thought. Sleep now" Just like that the voice vanished again, great now he's hallucinating voices in his head saving him.

It had been a quiet month for Izuku after that, he didn't see or hear from Artoria again, he almost convinced himself that he had imagined the events. There's no way a quirkless loser like him could have done what he did.

Eventually he saw her again, one day as Izuku crashed onto the sofa he noticed that sat on one of the dining table chairs was his mysterious saviour, her posture stiff but relaxed, with no danger in sight this time Izuku noticed one rather important detail, She was not casting a shadow and neither did the chair actually look like there was a human sat in it, the cushion remained plush and undisturbed.

"Welcome home, Izuku" Her voice was more refined than Izuku was used to being spoken to with. "I am sure you have many questions; I will do my best to answer them." She bowed respectfully to Izuku.

His mind whirred to life, it felt like he had a thousand questions bouncing off the inside of his skull, but one question seemed the most urgent and forced itself to the forefront of his mind.

"What was that before, it was like you were able to take control of my body and how did you find me again?" He watched her cautiously, she saved him but she also some how were able to find him again.

"That is straight forward to explain, you were some how able to forge a connection with an ancient ritual, drawing my spirit to you and technically speaking you could be called my master. This connection is how I found you again, we are after all bond together." Artoria's tone made it quite clear to Izuku that the topic should be simple to understand and yet her explanation didn't help him.

"And while this summoning seems different than I were used to it has its benefits, for now the normal mana transfer seems to be passing my traits to you, nor do I seem to have a physical presence in the world. I can't be sure, but I doubt others would be able to see me or even hear me."

"Summoning? Mana transfer…None of this makes sense, you were able to control me like a puppet. Is that what you mean?" At this point his volume was nothing more than confused muttering.

"No, that was a one-time solution. I expended almost all of the mana that sustains my presence to do that, you are gaining the ability to fight like I do, I can already feel the changes in your body, Through training there shouldn't be a need to do that again and if there is, there is no guarantee that I would not fade from the world as a result. As for mana transfer, consider our current situation like an hour glass, the sand goes either to one side or the other and currently my abilities and traits or as the metaphor goes sand, is flowing to you." Her brow creased in thought for a moment.

"I've been updated on the current worlds systems now, I believe its possible that our current situation could be considered your 'quirk' your use of my abilities could be considered a strength enhancing quirk. Ultimately though while my abilities are slowly passing to you, I am unsure on where your limits will be." Something about what she said seemed to make her panic, her arms were flailing about, and passing through the chair.

"A quirk? No I'm quirkless." Izuku mumbled for a moment "Though it is the most likely answer to this, Can I use your power to be a hero? Can I save people?" His voice was suddenly dripping in hope, a life time of trying to push down dreams to finally have a chance to achieve it was too much for him. Tears dropped from his eyes.

Artoria's facial expression softened considerably, like a proud mother lion looking down at her cub "With my assistance I dare say you will be the best hero, after all I have quite the experience in that, I wouldn't be here now if I hadn't. It will be tough, I will not go easy on you, but I have faith you can handle it. You have a vow to upkeep after all, no master of mine will be break a promise again."

And with that started seven months of absolute hell for Izuku.

His routine changed considerably overnight; he would go to school like normal but that was the only bit of his previous routine remaining. After school he would head to the nearby park and forage for sticks to use as practice 'swords' with stumps as his training dummies.

After it started to get dark he would head home, as he travelled the streets from park to home however Artoria would randomly attempt to trip him, they discovered early on that while she could not interact with the world as a whole Izuku seemed the exception, she had tried to explain why to him but he couldn't understand what she meant by "your brain thinks I'm here so it tricks the body into responding as though I am" he just understood that she can interact with him.

Once home he would eat his evening meal with his mother, discussing his day as he did before he would return to his bedroom where his final stage of training for the day would begin. He would spend the next few hours being lectured by Artoria on what being a hero means and how to more adequately use his new-found abilities

After three months of hellish training Artoria stopped him in the park, in itself this was not out of the ordinary since she often stopped to advise him on things he did wrong but it was her posture and behaviour that set Izuku on edge, he had never seen her nervous but as he watched her try to figure out what she wanted to say he noticed that her feet were twitching and moving as though they were trying to find the best position in a fight, finally he saw her take a deep breath before starting to speak.

"Today I'd like you to take us into a secluded area, I need to teach you another aspect of what you can possibly do. And I must stress possibly. It should give me a good idea of what to teach you next." Her fingers seemed to fidget nervously as she spoke, it was quite unusual for the normally self-assured swordswoman to be so nervous.

With a shaky nod of his head he moved to the more run-down area of the park, no one really went there after some villain trashed the place years ago. So, there he stood among the rusty and worn-down playground talking to himself, at least to what others who might see him would think if there were anyone there.

"So, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?" As he spoke, he sat down on the floor, may as well be rested for what ever comes next after all.

"I've been training you to use a sword, but not once have you asked about my own sword, I need to know if you will be able to use it or if we need to find you a sword of your own." Her brow creased in worry. "I am unsure if you will be able to even get your hands on it but if you can it will be a great asset to you." Artoria had started pacing around him now, something about this conversation was clearly placing stress on her

"You described using our abilities like pulling something from inside yourself, which would most likely be our shared mana supply, I'd like you to try and visualise this and attempt that." As she spoke, she held her hands out flat and one of the most beautiful things Izuku ever witnessed would happen.

Motes of what appeared to be sunlight seemed to gather in her hand, hundreds of thousands of them flew in from all directions, shaping what clearly was sword is shape but unlike any he'd seen before at least not from his own eyes, made of some golden material and seemed to radiate a feeling, hope? Yes he decided it must be hope.

"This will be hard, possibly fatal if you over do it. If you feel any pain cease your attempt immediately do you understand?" She held the now fully formed sword in front of him for him. "Study the sword and understand the burden of the blade, this is not a normal weapon so do not approach this like it is." Her tone was stern, if her warning hadn't made him feel like his life were in danger the tone certainly did it.

Nodding he pushed himself to his feet, he wouldn't lie. He was terrified of what he was about to do, Artoria had never been this serious regarding anything before. He steadied himself and held his hands out exactly as she had and focused on the image he saw before. Taking a deep breath, he reached inside for the source of power and pulled.

As soon as he did so he felt the breath get knocked out of him. Suddenly a pressure was pushing down on the boy, it was like something was watching him, judging the worth of his soul.

his entire life was passing before his eyes. He saw Bakugo bullying a child and him standing up for the injured boy, he saw the sludge villain from a few months back and his body moving to defeat it. But most importantly he felt his ideals be called into question, A heavy question hovered in the air as though waiting to be answered. Why do you wish to be a hero?

And without thinking or understanding the consequences of the question he answered, though it came out as a shout. "Because I want to save everyone with a smile, just like All might!" As soon as the words left his throat the pressure seemed to lift, and a feeling of peace filled the ruined playground.

Izuku took in a shuddering breath, it felt like he had been held between the hands of a giant and squeezed. The young boy suddenly felt his hands sink towards the floor, pressed by a sudden weight dropping into his hands. looking down he saw the golden sword that Artoria had shown him glimmering in the sunlight, its majestic form seeming to radiate a peaceful feeling to him, he shifted it in his hands so he was holding it by the hilt. A single word radiated inside his head 'Excalibur' and he knew that was the name of the sword in his hand, he had never asked about Artoria's past now he wished he had.

"You are the blades new master, it will come when called and you have real need of it. Show the world who you are." The words he heard came from everywhere around him, perhaps the wind because they certainly carried the cutting edge of the wind, resonating through his body. Then finally after what felt like hours the blade broke apart into golden motes once more, floating away like fireflies in the midsummer night.

And quite suddenly Izuku stumbled and found himself on the floor staring up at the sky. The ordeal tired him out considerably, but a smile still found its way across his face.

"I did it." His hands still felt tingly from what ever the strange lights were made of, but he felt peaceful, he didn't need to know the history of the sword or the teaching he had from Artoria, her expression was all he needed to know he had just passed a test she didn't think he was ready for. Shock had taken over her expression but it was quickly smothered by pride, overwhelming pride.

"That you did, You exceeded my expectations, I was not entirely sure it would even work, and if it did work, I was expecting to take months trying to do this, your ideals must be stronger than we thought." Artoria had found herself next to him, her arm held out for support.

"It will be far less tiring to call it now that it has accepted you as its master. Now why don't we go home. I'll spare you from the night time lectures this once, you did well today" Her expression as she spoke would be burned into his memory forever, she was smiling but it had bittersweet undertones to it, like when a parent answered a question but knew once the child was old enough, they would understand the burden of what they were being told.

After that time seemed to fly by until finally the day of the entrance exam came. After working harder than he ever worked in his life Izuku found himself walking down to the entrance to UA High, his stride confident and his gaze focused straight ahead of him, unfortunately for him, his single minded focus would come to bite him when Artoria decided to test him, more for fun than actual training.

Her leg shooting out from no where causing Izuku to trip and start to fall headfirst into what would be both a painful and embarrassing landing except his momentum was suddenly halted when he felt a hand tap his back and pull him into a standing position.

"I know I should have asked before using my quirk on you but I figured you'd rather that than hurt yourself before an important exam" The girl was rubbing the back of her head as she spoke, a smile never leaving her face. "My name is Ochaco Uraraka, it's nice to meet you" Her head dipped slightly in what was almost a bow before she pulled him along towards the main building. "We need to hurry or we're going to be late"

After his meeting with Ochaco they were quickly separated by the teaching staff and sent to seats in a large auditorium, it was only after they were forced apart did she realise she never did find out the boys name.

Izuku found himself sat next to Bakugo and each were trying their best to ignore the other while the teacher on stage explained the rules to the practical exam. "The rules seem pretty simple, go in defeat as many villains as possible, the difficulty of the enemy determines the reward for defeating them." Izuku's muttered to himself as his brain worked overtime on working out a plan. "The difficulty is in the defeating of villains, without a scale of how powerful the weakest is there's no way of telling if i'll be able to beat one ahead of time. And I promised Artoria I would take the exam without her help, it wouldn't be fitting of a hero to cheat." By this point they had filed out of the room and were standing in front of a large concrete door which he assumed the test would take place behind.

And quite suddenly Present Mic's voice rang out "Right start, there is no warning for heroics get going."

And get going he did, using the training Artoria had forced on him, he mentally pictured the hourglass in his mind and pushed the sand in the direction of his legs, springing forward with speeds that only a few of the other contestants were able to match, mainly those with mobility based quirks.

It was as he shot round the first corner that a green metallic limb almost collided with his skull, if it weren't for him quickly sliding under it, he could have been seriously hurt. His eyes quickly took in the foe before him, it was just a one pointer. A smile spread across Izuku's face, here was his scale to compare the other enemies to.

He spun round and pulled his fist back, envisioning the sand moving towards his hand until it felt slightly heavy, he struck out against the Robot and had to stop himself from jumping back in surprise.

His punch had knocked the arm of the machine clean off, shattering it at the joint but the machine still seemed mostly functioning, or it was until a laser shot through a nearby window and destroyed the head of the robot causing it to slump over.

The test advanced more smoothly after that, with a concept of where to hit the robots to disable them and understanding of how hard he had to hit them he was able to score around 20 points before chaos was unleashed.

The first sign to Izuku that something was wrong was the stampede of other examines fleeing past him as though their life depended on it, the second sign was the gigantic robot taller than any of the buildings moving slowly in his direction. The third and final sign was the screeching of metal on metal as the machine plowed through the street.

Izuku turned to flee, the robot was worth no points and he didn't have enough to pass. If he wants to be worthy of the training he was given he knew he needed more points but then he heard it, perhaps it was dumb luck that he heard her or maybe he accidentally reinforced his ears in his panic Izuku wasn't sure which but he found himself turning to see the girl who had saved him from a cruel unfortunate fate of face planting concrete trapped under some rubble, the titanic machine moving with no care for anyone in its path, and she were in its path.

It was like a switch was flicked in Izuku's brain, his legs shooting him forward faster than he had moved before. It took only seconds to land in front of the downed girl, his body moving entirely on instinct he took his stance and held his hands out as though he were grasping a weapon. There was no slow build of sunlight this time, the urgency of the situation seemed to spur them on, almost instantly the legendary sword was in his hands and he did the one thing he was told not to do.

The blade seemed to be providing him instructions on how to conquer the robot infront of him. Wasting no more time he raised it high above his head and concentrated on the concept. The feeling of hope that the sword gave of, the name filling his entire soul. The blade was alight with a brightness that could match the sun and he swung with all his might, pouring his heart into the swing a single word forced its way out of his mouth, perhaps because at that moment the word was consuming every single aspect of his soul "Excalibur!"

The blade erupted in energy as he swung, the downward trajectory of the slash causing it to cleave the massive machine in two. To say it cut the robot would be an understatement, it never stood a chance, the energy tore through it as though it were made of paper.

Molten metal and wires flew in every direction as a result of the sheer force it took before the husk fell apart.

From Ochaco's point of view it wasn't her best day, she stared death in the face, quite literally in her opinion as the robot inched towards her prone position, unable to use her quirk anymore she couldn't move the rubble. She had over done it trying to score points and now she was going to die here. She closed her eyes, unwilling to watch it move further, her thoughts distraught "I'm sorry dad, mom. I cant help you anymore" tears were spilling out her eyes, a traitorous part of her mind would mock her that she couldn't even face death with dignity.

But then quite suddenly the terror of the situation was muted entirely, a calm peaceful feeling forced itself on her, her heart telling her that there was hope, she wouldn't die yet, and she opened her eyes. There in-front of her was the boy from earlier, his green hair blowing about in the maelstrom of power he seemed to be giving off, his hands held high and some sort of bright light grasped in them. And then he swung downwards. The force of what ever he did pulverised the rubble holding her and sent her skidding backwards, strangely it felt like it pushed her just enough that she was not in harms way before it felt like the earth exploded and she found herself dropping into the sweet darkness of unconsciousness.

As soon as Izuku had defeated the threat the blade shattered back into sunlight and found himself laying on the floor, everything hurt. He didn't know half the parts of him that hurt could even hurt but it was like every single cell of his body was submerged in boiling liquid. He closed his eyes shut with the pain shocking his entire system, he vaguely recognised before his brain forced himself to shut down that Artoria was forcing him out, she had taken control of his body and was moving towards his home, and then he knew no more.


	2. Chapter 2

Pain, all-consuming pain was the first thing Izuku noticed as he regained consciousness followed quickly by the feeling of soft bedding under his body and the scent of what could only be his mother's cooking filling the air. He tried pushing himself into a seated position on the bed but quickly thought better of it and flopped back down as the movement caused his body to crumble back down on the bed from pain, it felt like his blood was boiling inside him or maybe trying to force its way out.

With his options now limited Izuku rolled over to stare at the wall, his thoughts bouncing around his head at what felt almost hurricane level speeds as he slowly tried to relax his breathing.

After what felt like hours but really was only minutes Izuku's breathing stabilised and he pushed himself up, so he was resting his back against the wall. The pain returned quickly but on a much lower level this time, he might not be moving around much but at least it was manageable right now.

Having nothing better to do he looked around his room to find anything that could distract him from the pain, but nothing seemed out of place or interesting, but the fact that he was alone in the room concerned him.

Artoria rarely left his side, what reason would she have since no one else could see her.

He tried to think of anything recent that might have upset her, but the attempt caused even more pain, entirely different this time however, it felt vaguely migraine-like except for the strange sensation dangling on the tip of his thoughts, like something was missing and the feeling of being submerged in an ocean of gold and hateful red eyes looking down on him as he drowned. Not really having the words to describe it Izuku grunted and decided that it felt like there was a crack in his skull when he tried to think.

He didn't have long to ponder his situation though as moments later his mother poked her head through the door frame, which he was only now realising that was missing the door.

The older woman pushed herself through the training equipment and stacks of notebooks to reach her sons bed, ruffling his green hair affectionately before placing a bowl of soup down on the bedside table for him and giving him stern instructions to make sure to drink it all to recover his strength before leaving him alone with his thoughts once again.

Izuku weakly picked up the bowl, his arms felt sluggish and heavy, but he managed to hold the bowl steady enough to drink while his thoughts bounced around.

His quirk was the main focus of his thoughts at the moment, after all he really didn't know a lot about it and what he did know Artoria had told him was just theory, neither of them had any way of knowing if they were correct in their thoughts or not.

"What I do know is some how my quirk acts as an anchor to her and somehow I am slowly learning to use her abilities." He mumbled out loud as he idly stirred his soup with a spoon. "Other than that, there's so much unknown to it, why her specifically. What is so special about her or I that my quirk linked us together."

The longer Izuku sat there playing with his soup and thinking the more Artoria's absence unsettled, she had never left his side since he awakened his quirk, his gut was screaming that something was wrong.

His thoughts and worries around Artoria's absence lit a fire of motivation under him, he must figure out where she had gone but first, he must be able to move out of the bed. Mentally psyching himself up he lifted the bow up and drank the last of his soup, placing it gently back down on the table before trying to stand up.

It hurt but he had felt worse many times during his training. He took a single step and the world started to spin for a moment, so he stood still and waited for it to pass. It took him almost twenty minutes, but he made it to the opposite wall before slowly moving back towards the bed, small progress.

It would be a few days until Izuku were able to move around with relative freedom and yet Artoria still hadn't returned and with no way of knowing what happened Izuku only had one path, keep moving forward and hope either she returned or he got some hint about his quirk that would allow him to reunite with his friend.

At the end of the week he got his results back from U.A he placed relatively average, but he did pass the exam. He did it, he's going to study at U.A!

His excitement however was swiftly popped as he realised that this would mean he had to update his quirk registration and he still had no idea what his quirk even was. After some consideration he decided that the simple answer would be to class it as a strength enhancing quirk and without Artoria around to bounce ideas off that will have to do.

Izuku found himself at the park he and Artoria had used to train and sat down under one of the taller trees and placed his head on the trunk, listening as heavy rain splattered the leaves in a relaxing sound. After staying in the house since the exam he was honestly just happy to be out finally, even if it was raining, he would be happy to sit here for hours.

And sit there he did, he sat under that tree until the sun started to set and the few stragglers in the park had gone home. Now that he was alone however it was time to do what he came here to do.

Izuku pushed himself to his feet, the wind blowing against his hair as he stood. With some trepidation he held out his hand and focused on calling his sword, if he was going to stand on his own feet at U.A and more importantly find Artoria, he needs to work harder than everyone else at the school, but as he stood there with his hand outstretched waiting for the sword to come he realised with a sinking feeling as though his stomach had turned to lead, the sword was not coming, there was not even a single spec of gold in the air and giving an anguished sob he dropped to the ground once more and stared up at the canopy of leaves as though they were mocking him.


End file.
